


mark my (final) words on your skin

by writerdragonfly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 11:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3976288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerdragonfly/pseuds/writerdragonfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has a tattoo on their skin–words from their soulmate. Only it’s not the first words they hear from their soul mate–it’s the last. Soulmark!AU</p>
<p>Derek's mark says "I love you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	mark my (final) words on your skin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LovelessAyase](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelessAyase/gifts).



Derek’s mark said “I love you,” so every time someone says that, he panics and leaves them.

He never knows if they were the one.

When he gets with Stiles, something in him settles. So he asks Stiles one thing. “Don’t fall in love with me.”

—

Stiles takes it as a challenge.

—

Stiles is about to say it one night, the words are about to tumble from his lips as he lays half splayed over Derek’s body–sated and happy. But then he sees it. The words half hidden under the swirl of Derek’s tattoo. “I love you.”

So he doesn’t. He wonders though, if that’s part of why Derek is so fucked up. How many relationships might he have been in that ended with those words?

So Stiles doesn’t say it, even though he feels it so incredibly deeply. Instead, he makes a game of it. At first, it’s only in his head. “I hold affection in my heart for you, werewolf.” “It’s not Opposite Day. You hate me very little.”

—

And then one day, he and Derek are eating cold Chinese takeout in their boxers and he just says it. “Stiles loves you.” Derek jumps in surprise, his eyes wide. There’s a little bit of panic there, but not the “ew feelings” kind. It’s the, “I’m terrified that means you’re leaving” kind.

“Don’t. Don’t say that–”

“I saw it, you know. Your mark. I won’t ever say that to you, if… It’s not fair. But I do, you know.”

“Why?” Derek asks, and it sounds so hollow. Stiles shakes his head.

“Because it’s you. How could I not?”  
Derek is quiet for a long time, staring down into his little white box.

“If it makes you feel any better, I can show you mine.” Stiles says softly. And Derek looks up.

Stiles’ mark is on the sole of his foot, ink black on pale skin.

To Derek it looks like a jumble of letters and then Stilinski.

“What is it?”

Stiles looks at him with a sad kind of smile.

“My name.”

“Stiles…”

“Derek… Let’s make a pact, okay? Sound like a plan?” Stiles doesn’t wait for Derek to respond, just barrels on ahead, “Only if one of us is dying do we ever say them.”

Derek nods slowly, before he brings Stiles in with a hand at the back of his neck and kisses him.

—

Stiles and Derek break up when Jennifer Blake gets her claws into him. Their relationship had been secret until that point anyway, Stiles’ age only one of a million factors.

Afterward, Stiles’ father knows about werewolves, the Nogitsune happens (and it was only by Stiles’ sheer power of will did the creature never learn of those three words where Derek was concerned–perhaps, the Nogitsune fed on Stiles agony at trying to hide those three words. Because soul mate pain is such sweet nirvana. )

And then Malia. Stiles had no illusions about his relationship with Malia, she wouldn’t ever know his name, let alone say it. But then Derek is in danger and they go to La Inglesia…

And then Derek has Braeden. Stiles can’t make himself hurt him. He just knows that Derek is his soulmate. He doesn’t need the syllables of his name to prove it.

—

Derek is dying. Derek is dying, and Stiles doesn’t want to leave him. A piece of him hurts too much and Derek is telling him to go but he doesn’t want to. Derek is dying and Stiles doesn’t want to leave him.

And then Derek says to go one last time, and then he says his name in perfect Polish and Stiles’ stomach drops.

“I love you,” Stiles says, a heartbreaking look on his face. He kisses him, and runs.

They both know what it is. Their goodbye. Their acknowledgement of their marks and their soulmate connection.

—

And then Derek evolves.

When the dust settles, and everyone is alive and safe and still, Derek itches to gravitate to Stiles. But he doesn’t. And then, Braeden pushes Derek’s back with a sad, teary smile.

Braeden knows what the mark on Derek’s back means, what it changing means. She was never his to keep. “I love you,” she said softly. And then she was gone.

Stiles remembers his dad’s mark changing when his mom died. The dark lettering fading into a long pink scar. He can see that same mark on Derek’s back now, intersecting his tattoo. He thinks for a minute it means that Braeden was Derek’s and Stiles was wrong, so wrong.

Derek looks pained, like he’s been thinking that too, since she left.

He hugs Derek then, standing in the dust. And wishes things were different.

—

In the ride back home, he ends up tucked in a seat next to Derek. They don’t speak, but their fingers brush together. And then a beep startles them apart. Derek’s phone chirps with a message, Braeden’s name on the top of it.

[Your mark scarred before I left. Mine hasn’t. Let him take care of you.]

Derek drops his phone on the floor of the crowded vehicle but makes no attempt to pick it up. Stiles can feel his heart racing even without preternatural senses. Someone slows the car, probably hearing Derek’s sudden reaction. Stiles can’t even remember who was driving, super focused on Derek.

Derek doesn’t speak, just gets out of his seat and opens the door. Stiles is about to protest when Derek pulls him out too.

Everything else fades.

Derek motions for him to sit and so Stiles does. He sits in the dirt on the side of the road in the middle of who knows where and let’s Derek tug off his shoe.

And on the sole of his foot is a long pink scar.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr. You can find me [ here.](http://writerdragonfly.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Prompts welcome.


End file.
